


The Tooth Fairy

by Supernova95



Series: Home Alone [9]
Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Child Neglect, Gen, Tooth Fairies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-04
Updated: 2015-02-04
Packaged: 2018-03-10 13:11:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3291503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Supernova95/pseuds/Supernova95
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tim had lost a tooth. It had been wobbling for a while, since before the Mr Wayne kindly took him in.</p>
<p>And then came the daunting task of asking Mr Wayne if he could give permission for the tooth fairy to come that night and pick it up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tooth Fairy

**Author's Note:**

> Winterysomnium let me use her lovely (in a heartbreaking way) headcannon about Tim and tooth faries so all credit goes to her for the idea!!

Tim had lost a tooth; it had been wobbling for a while, since before the Mr Wayne kindly took him in.

And then came the daunting task of asking Mr Wayne if he could give permission for the tooth fairy to come that night and pick it up. It’s not that he thought that the man wouldn’t, but he didn’t want to inconvenience him. Mr Wayne led a busy life and had far more important matters to consider than asking the Tooth Fairy to pick up his recently fallen out molar.

But the Tooth Fairy could use his tooth right? That’s why they came to pick them all up, because they were useful. So he really should, shouldn’t he? Mr Wayne would understand, he was a child once and his parents probably asked the Tooth Fairy to visit them all the time… or should he ask Alfred? Alfred knows everything and everyone; chances are he knows the Tooth Fairy.

Nobody can refuse Alfred, but Tim can’t find Alfred. He’s not in the kitchen, the dining room or any of their bedrooms. The only place he hasn’t looked is in Mr Wayne’s study, where Mr Wayne was probably working, he didn’t want to bother Mr Wayne but he was getting tired and the Tooth Fairy needed his tooth, right?

-

It wasn’t very late when there was a small knock at his study door. In tiptoed a downcast and weary looking eight-year-old, his eyes were focused intently on the floor and somehow Tim managed to look twice as small as he actually was.

He was shuffling his feet in such an awkward manner that Bruce felt inclined to reach out and pull him onto his lap, but he restrained himself. Tim had been living at the Manor for just over the week and anytime someone went to physically touch him he would look up with bright blue questioning eyes that made even Dick pause before hug tackling.

They had come to understand that Tim was touch-starved.

Touching in the Drake household was reserved for when Tim had been perceived to have done something wrong. There were never any hugs, only harsh hands used to drag him to his room and make him stay there until he could act like a mature member of society.

Throughout the first five years of his life, nannies were told how to discipline him by his parents; on pain of ending up blacklisted from the trade when Jack and Janet Drake returned from whatever trip they had been on.

The boy hadn’t had a nice childhood; he was not spoiled, but the polar opposite. He was neglected and psychologically (if not physically) abused by people he trusted.

Suddenly changing what Tim’s use to could be detrimental to the eight year old figuring out that: no, parents were not supposed to only be around for a few weeks in a year, and children were supposed to have fun and laugh and smile and not act like a fully grown adult until they had to (and then only in polite company). It was going to be a slow process to get Tim to being the smiling little angel they all knew a long time ago; but they were going to get there.

Even if that meant that they had to make some sacrifices in the short term and be extra careful around Tim, they would get there.

"Master Timothy is everything alright?" Alfred had also seen the child grace their presence and took the more civil approach than Bruce’s ‘He’ll talk when he wants to’

Tim looked up, eyes confused and face conflicted. He was ringing his hands and shuffling his feet just a little bit more.

"Yes Alfred, everything is fine." His voice could rival that of a Wayne Enterprises businessman, though it suddenly turned very small and unsure, as though he had scripted and practiced some answers (like what to say if an adult asked him how he was), but when it came to parts of conversations where he was just talking, off the top of his head, he stopped. 

Every time Tim did not know the ‘appropriate’ answer, or every time he asked for something, it was the same small, almost frightened, voice. "I merely wished to ask if maybe you or Mr Wayne could give the permission for the Tooth Fairy to visit tonight as I was just brushing my teeth and my bottom left back molar fell out, and I know that you both are extremely busy men and I don’t want to be a bother; but the Tooth Fairy needs teeth and I just lost one so they would probably like to have it, but they need your permission to come collect it so I thought you should know" Tim’s eyes had fallen back to the floor halfway through his speech that came across halfway way between scared mumbling and hyperventilation.

The first question that crossed Bruce’s mind was why Tim thought that they needed to give the ‘Tooth Fairy’ permission to visit in the first place, but when he looked at Alfred, when he saw the sad and worried expression on the older man’s face, he realised how stupid he was being.

Tim hadn’t had a nanny since he was five, and his parents were always in some country or another, so when his teeth started falling out there was no one there to take them away.

There was no one there to give him the happiness that came with small notes from a child’s own personal fairy, or from the small amount of money they found under their pillows in the morning.

Bruce often forgot the small things that others in Tim’s position had that Tim didn’t, and Bruce didn’t know quite how to handle it, how to make it better.

As always though, Alfred makes everything better.

"Master Timothy I do not know about your old home, but in this one Tooth Fairies have free reign, so long as you put your tooth under your pillow" the ‘and tell us you have’ was left unsaid because Alfred knew everything that went on under this roof.

Tim’s looked up in disbelief.

"R-really?"

"Of course Master Timothy, Tooth Fairies are amazing creatures, aren’t they Master Bruce?" he smiles and nods to his Butler’s explanation "they do not have to seek our permission to enter this house"

"There… There are more than one?"

"Of course" this time Bruce chimed in, "There is an army of Tooth Fairies, one for each child, you can even write to them if you want"

"Really?" Tim smile was wide, he looked as though he had just woken up on Christmas morning.

They both smiled and nodded, Alfred led Tim from the room to go and write a letter to his very own Tooth Fairy.

-

The morning was an interesting one, Alfred had put a lengthy letter and four dollars under Tim’s pillow (one for each of the teeth he had currently lost), which Tim couldn’t help but bounce around with in excitement and utter astonishment, it definitely brightened up the breakfast table in the morning.

-

Tim had a Tooth Fairy, an actual Tooth Fairy. His name was Adohafin and he was really sorry that his parents wouldn’t let him collect his teeth for quite a while, and that his friends regularly visited Dick and Jason, and that the Waynes were a lovely family, that always let the Tooth Fairies do their job.

And with that he couldn’t help but give Mr Wayne a hug, because Tim had tooth fairy, and Mr Wayne let him take Tim’s teeth.

He had apologised straight afterwards, because he wasn’t supposed to hug kind men he was inconveniencing with his presence. Mr Wayne was really nice about it though, and pulled him onto his lap telling him the Tim always had the right to hug him.

He was obviously just trying to be nice.


End file.
